It's still Summer... or it's Summer-still

It is amazing to me how comforting this farm is, how wonderful to go home and to not have to worry about walking around the house in skivvies or staying inside because you don't want to talk to the neighbors. It all works for us. We like the peace and quiet because truly, neither of us have quiet jobs. Mike's job might be on the top of a hill that overlooks a cow pasture, but it's still noisy with the people around the warehouse, his employees and the constant ringing of the phones. My job is just crazy.

It is SO nice to come home to the farm. It's just RIGHT here.

Our harvests so far have been some test garlic and onions, a few plums, peaches, herbs, eggs, 40 'harvested' chickens, dill up to my... neck (almost). The gourds have gone crazy and will be taking over the 50 foot by 150 foot plot of land where they're planted.

The tomatoes are going crazy, too, and the teardrop tomatoes look more like filled in cartoon balloons with large... points on the ends.

The corn has just begun to put out its pollen packages and I hope we see some silk action in the next few weeks.

One of the boar billy goats have, for the last two days, been in the forested area where there is no gate. It has cried when we got home and gotten stuck behind the fence where it goes to find better foliage, I guess. We've had to let it out twice at the evening feeding time. The poor thing bleats like there's no tomorrow and is so panicky with us, that it just doesn't know how to handle getting back into the barnyard.

Our barred rock chickens are almost ready to lay, and we think one of them might be doing so. We can't ever tell because we pick up the eggs at odd times. Since chickens lay about every 23 hours (with regular feedings), we don't know and can't FIND the eggs when they do lay them. They've laid in the nesting boxes I made for them only twice. They are foragers, too, supplemented with chicken scratch from time to time and laying mash when they want it in a huge feeder.

The littlest goat is finally off formula, but still a pain, as it is the loudest of the goats and the one that has to be right next to us around feeding time. Bleating. Did I mention the annoying bleating?

It's hot, now, and there is still much work to do. The greenhouse is useless right now, but still has a few plants in it. Tomatoes (cherry) as well as castor bean trees, one caper plant and a few odds and ends. I need to clean it out and reorg it for the fall. It's not quite right, yet.

We have sparrows nesting right outside our back door, right at eye level and where we put stuff like gloves. There are three eggs in the nest along with Mike's matchstick lighter for his barbecue.

Speaking of Barbecue, she's got a million sticker burs in her coat and we try to keep her free of them by brushing once or twice a week, but it just doesn't seem to matter. Rolling around in the dirt and the grass is her specialty, after all.

It's been a long few weeks.

Happy farming!

Miss Lyn (Kristi)